What did you do in the Apiary today?

[hemo]

If they start charging the QCs, then they are already in swarm mode? There were a lot of play cups all round the edges of every frame. This colony was quite swarmy last year so I’m thinking I split them now and I can always reunite and have a spare queen for another colony if needed. But agree a demaree might have been better.

One doesn't even have to carry out a full Demeree , often I find a partial vertical split is enough. Simply remove the open brood upstairs and the bees will divide them selves up.
Leave the Q in place with the sealed brood and with a good half dozen drawn or foundation frames to keep the bees busy.
If the colony isn't on double brood then that would be my first option to give plenty more room, I find my queens will lay up to 18 brood frames and be quite happy . Improving ones lot is the easiest way to weedle out over swarmy traits though at some stage they will produce swarm cells to replace an older queen in her third year if pheromones are reduced, once one improves the swarmyness trait one can then rely a little more on late season superscedure with two or three cells present.

Apart from a casual tilting of the top BB to look between my colonies for any signs of QC's , the conditions just haven't been good enough for a proper rummage thru. It has either been raining, a cold chill wind blowing or both. Finally Saturday and most of next week the forecast looks quite good with some spring sun and mid to upper teen temps, so may get a first proper thorough inspection this year.

 

[SWEET]

Looking forward to seeing this lot (not all) flying around my new flight cage.

 

[Superlativesoul]

Looking forward to seeing this lot (not all) flying around my new flight cage.

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That's looks very good ,could you elaborate its use ,never seen or heard before, Thanks
John

 

[Curly green finger's]

looking forward to receiving a mated queen from Mbc, looks like I’m going to need an umbrella as it’s raining fairish this morning, I might just introduce the queen in the garage where it’s dry.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

I did a vertical split on this colony a few days ago. They were already double brood and there was a lot of brood in both boxes. Very little stores. I made sure the queen was in the bottom box, rotated it 180°, gave them some fondant in an eke below the split board with the entrance facing the same as the original entrance, put on the second brood box, and super and left. I was drenched / smothered in bees (including a couple inside my suit) so I wasn't in a mood to sit around and watch.

The picture shows the scene the following day, temperature c.16C. I've already noticed in previous splits (I'm new to this manipulation) that the foragers trying to get in to the upper box hugely outnumber the bees left in the lower box. I'll put on another super asap to give room. Maybe I need to have a think about how I allocate frames between the two boxes. Or maybe the bees were finding the heat inside the hive too much.

 

[Antipodes]

Inspected a few sites but bees weren't happy. Assume it's weather related, my heart wasn't in it either! Three hives making swarm prep, one split made, spent over an hour looking for Q in a second one including sieving through the excluder but to no avail. Stores have significantly increased since last week and eggs present some I'm hard pressed to believe she's gone. Q excluder put under the brood just in case... Third one I need to return to tomorrow with a nuc box.

Don't you hate it when you can't find a queen despite such efforts . It'll be interesting to see if she's on the outside of the excluder. Not infrequently they go to ground on me.... literally, but get their way back into the entrance, although I guess your hives may be elevated? With mine the just crawl up the pallets.

 

[Wilco]

Don't you hate it when you can't find a queen despite such efforts . It'll be interesting to see if she's on the outside of the excluder. Not infrequently they go to ground on me.... literally, but get their way back into the entrance, although I guess your hives may be elevated? With mine the just crawl up the pallets.

I had a good look outside too but no joy sadly.

 

[pargyle]

That's looks very good ,could you elaborate its use ,never seen or heard before, Thanks
John

https://meyerbees.com/product/drone-flight-insect-cage/

It's a nice construction from Sweet ... clever use of queen excluders so the workers can pass freely. I suspect he's using it to collect drones for Artificial Insemination but hopefully he will be along to enlighten us. Not sure how this fits on the hive ?

 

[Swarm]

I did a vertical split on this colony a few days ago. They were already double brood and there was a lot of brood in both boxes. Very little stores. I made sure the queen was in the bottom box, rotated it 180°, gave them some fondant in an eke below the split board with the entrance facing the same as the original entrance, put on the second brood box, and super and left. I was drenched / smothered in bees (including a couple inside my suit) so I wasn't in a mood to sit around and watch.

The picture shows the scene the following day, temperature c.16C. I've already noticed in previous splits (I'm new to this manipulation) that the foragers trying to get in to the upper box hugely outnumber the bees left in the lower box. I'll put on another super asap to give room. Maybe I need to have a think about how I allocate frames between the two boxes. Or maybe the bees were finding the heat inside the hive too much.

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You moved the original, lower entrance and have the new, upper entrance facing the original direction. The confused bees are finding their old entrance has moved up a bit.
When I add screen boards, the new entrance is 180 degrees to the old entrance, the old entrance remains the same and the supers remain on the lower box, below the board.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

You moved the original, lower entrance and have the new, upper entrance facing the original direction. The confused bees are finding their old entrance has moved up a bit.
When I add screen boards, the new entrance is 180 degrees to the old entrance, the old entrance remains the same and the supers remain on the lower box, below the board.

Thanks. Which box do you put the queen in, upper or lower?

 

[Swarm]

Thanks. Which box do you put the queen in, upper or lower?

In the lower box, I want the flying bees to make their way back home which is why she also gets the supers.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

In the lower box, I want the flying bees to make their way back home which is why she also gets the supers.

Will this still work for swarm control? I'm following Dan Basterfield on this. He says that swarming is prevented by depriving the queen of a large chunk of the foragers.

 

[Sutty]

Will this still work for swarm control? I'm following Dan Basterfield on this. He says that swarming is prevented by depriving the queen of a large chunk of the foragers.

The evidence I have seen personally is that the flying bees are the ones that drive the will to swarm.
I once had a strong colony making swarm preps and about to seal the cells, but I had no spare boxes to make a split. I took down the cells and swapped the hive positions so the flying bees went back to a much weaker colony which had shown no signs of wanting to swarm. I think it was the very next day I witnessed them swarming! I looked in the hive and found several queen cups/cells with just an egg in! They got the queen to lay in a few new cups & they were gone with an unprepared queen!!

 

[SWEET]

That's looks very good ,could you elaborate its use ,never seen or heard before, Thanks
John

Thanks, i'll write something up in the Queen/rearing section. Essentially a drone flight cage (exercise) that sits on top of a hive, all part of the Instrumental Insemination(II) setup -

 

[madasafish]

Eventually installed a nuc into a full hive for a beginner at her home. It was 7pm and raining and 9C.
We finished in 15 minutes: no stings and very few bees flying around

(They were very calm bees)

 

[JamezF]

Inspecting my home apiary this morning. All looks well. One colony definitely needs a super. Lots of wax looks like it has been built when the colonies were foraging on dandelion.

One of the colonies I moved last week has a single queen cell. A few play cups too, but there's just the one queen cell that I could find down the edge of one of the combs. I'm going to call it a supersedure[1] and leave them to get on with it for a few weeks. If I'm wrong hopefully my bait hive will catch the fall-out.

James

[1] Note the spelling, Emyr

 

[Jack00scarecrow]

Thanks, i'll write something up in the Queen/rearing section. Essentially a drone flight cage (exercise) that sits on top of a hive, all part of the Instrumental Insemination(II) setup -

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[Jack00scarecrow]

oops posted twice and cant find the delete button.

 

[Jack00scarecrow]

Thanks, i'll write something up in the Queen/rearing section. Essentially a drone flight cage (exercise) that sits on top of a hive, all part of the Instrumental Insemination(II) setup -

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wow, that's a next level setup, i take it you sell breeder queens?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A few play cups too, but there's just the one queen cell that I could find down the edge of one of the combs. I'm going to call it a supersedure

it's a popular spot to hide a supersedure cell, right on the periphery of the next - not slap bang in the middle of a frame as the ladybird books say.